The AIDS virus remains a challenge in designing an HIV vaccine that meets the requirements to eliminate it from the body or help us fight it.
Our immune system is comprised of a series of defenses to slow the progression of agents that endanger the integrity of the body. Among them is the lymphatic strategy, based on the acquisition of immunity against a specific pathogen, thus reducing it and preventing new infections.
This type of response differs among the population, finding people who have been able to develop resistance against something unusual. And it will not be less HIV; There are people who have antibodies that effectively neutralize HIV. Why not use them to our advantage?
The great protagonists: neutralizing antibodies
The funny thing is, many of us have precursors for HIV neutralizing antibodies, but our cells are not able to choose it when it comes to dealing with infection. Through genetic engineering, researchers from the The Scripps Research Insitute (TSRI) , The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAIVI) and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology have designed proteins capable of binding to these precursors and triggering the immune response to HIV.
To better understand this idea, imagine that our body’s defenses are a military army. When fighting the enemy (pathogen) the greatest number of members will be needed, and of course, they must know the enemy. Thus the role of precursor of neutralizing antibody will be taken by those people who live outside the army but whose help will determine the course of the combat.
The challenge in designing a vaccine is to choose an immune gene that can present a recognizable viral particle. by B lymphocytes, to stimulate their activation and proliferation. With the protein designed by the researchers, clinical tests have been advanced with surprising results. The candidate was able to bind in such a specific way that he would find his target among 1 million cells.
HIV Vaccine Now Gives Results in Mice
The most important points of the study revolved around the safety of the vaccine and the approval of the precursor stimulation method with the laboratory-designed protein. Using the mouse as a model, they tested the effects of this vaccine resulting in it.the formation of antibodies against HIV, but with the need for some help.
Bringing this model to the human will also require some immunological stimulation, a small push that will achieve the success that this vaccine aims to end once and for all with HIV.
Source | Scripps
